1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flying head slider including a slider body defining a medium opposed surface and read and write head elements mounted on the slider body at the medium opposed surface of the slider body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A resistive element is sometimes incorporated in a flying head slider in a recording disk drive such as a hard disk drive, HDD, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-259323. The resistive element is embedded within an insulating material along with a write head element and a read head element. The resistive element generates heat in response to the supply of electric current. The heat of the resistive element causes expansion of the insulating material adjacent to the resistive element. The write head element and the read head element are likewise caused to expand. This results in protrusion of the write head element and the read head element toward the surface of the magnetic recording disk. The write head element and the read head element are thus allowed to get closest to the surface of the magnetic recording disk.
The resistive element, the read head element and the write head element are layered in this sequence in the flying head slider. The insulating material expands in a smaller amount at a position remoter from the resistive element. While the read head element is allowed to sufficiently protrude toward the magnetic recording disk, the protrusion of the write head element is suppressed. The write head element cannot thus sufficiently approach the magnetic recording disk. Magnetization cannot be established in the magnetic recording disk at a sufficient intensity in response to a magnetic field of the write head element.